BeyondThe Journal of A Very Married Talon Tantiss [DDC 2014] 2014 Journal Is Complete!

NOTE: This is a continuation of last year’s Dear Diary Challenge titled: The Journal of Talon Tantiss. I am going to attempt to write this year’s diary so everybody can understand it, but I realize it is going to be difficult sometimes. This original character has been developed throughout a number of fanfics spanning two years.

First there was the story Second to None which was a L/M love story, but it also explained the origin of Talon’s father Mark Tantiss. Then there was The Journal of Mark Tantiss, followed by Second To None: Sacrifices. The first story introduced Talon Tantiss and the second fleshed out the character a bit. Finally there was The Journal of Talon Tantiss that fully characterized the man from his teens until his marriage. If you want to read any of these stories you can find the link in my signature. They are archived over at FFN. They are also on this site and can be found by searching the title. I think the truncation issue only affects Second To None.

The first post is probably more of a rehash for people who didn't read the other stories.

Thanks for reading!

~JL~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ENTRY 1

45.2 ABY- Coruscant

I have kept a journal of my adventures since 32 ABY when I was just an eighteen-year-old Jedi Apprentice. Now I am thirty-one years of age, an experienced Jedi Knight, newly married and father to a boy named Marcus conceived during a short-lived previous relationship.

Anybody reading this journal in the future should probably read my diary from my days as a single man if you want the entire backstory of my life, but just in case that journal is ever destroyed or lost I will give any readers a quick review of my overly complex life so far.

My name is Talon Tantiss. I am the youngest son of retired Jedi Master Mark Tantiss and Kira Starkos Tantiss. I have a brother named Jaden who is currently married to Jysella Horn Tantiss and have a daughter named Jessa. They are Jedi Healers.

I am biologically related to the Skywalker and Solo family and through marriage I am linked to the Karrde Family. How we are all related is a key part to my story.

My father was a clone found deep within Emperor Palpatine’s secret mountain facility on the planet Wayland. Around 8 or 9 ABY the crazy Jedi Joruus C’baoth had acquired Jedi Master Luke Skywalker DNA by way of his severed hand he lost on Bespin (how C’baoth got Master Skywalker’s hand is still a mystery to me. Did a Bespin janitor sweep it up and decide to keep it? How did C’baoth get it? Was it on sale on the Holonet? ‘For sale: Jedi lightsaber—comes with poseable Jedi hand!’ Who knows?).

Anyway, crazy C’baoth took Skywalker’s DNA and made two clones. One was a normal copy of Luke Skywalker, the other had its DNA manipulated to make him into a Imperial Sentinel—which is a genetically altered, three meter tall, muscular giant created to be a brain dead extension of C’baoth’s will.

Mara Jade killed the regular sized clone but the extra large clone was saved before his intended chemical lobotomization and taken to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi. That second clone is my father.

Dad has spent all of his life trying to hide the fact that he was Uncle Luke’s genetic copy. He dyed his hair red and his irises green. Of course, his disguise was helped along by his enormous size. Instead he tells people he is Mara Jade’s long lost brother. Because of this back-story I am officially known as the cousin to the large Skywalker family (oldest son Ben, twins Jak and Owen and daughter Hanna) and also a non-blood relative to the Solo children (twins Jaina and Jacen and younger brother Anakin). Of course I am a blood relative to both families because dad is Luke’s clone and is considered the same as an identical twin brother…although they no longer look alike.

My dad never grew to the standard height of an Imperial Sentinel. He is 2.15 meters tall and weighs 125 kilograms—far less than the three-meter and the two hundred kilo frame of Imperial Sentinels of the past.

I was born, raised and trained at the temple along with all my cousins. As adults, my cousin Ben and I started dating the two daughters of Talon Karrde and his wife Zara Maru Karrde.I ended up marrying Zylie Karrde and Ben married Valla Karrde.

Which brings me to my current wedded status. We all got married in a joint ceremony and after going off on our separate honeymoons with our gorgeous brides Ben and I are finally back on Coruscant with our wives. While the ladies are off shopping, Ben and I have spent the last few hours checking out our impressive wedding gift from the Skywalker, Tantiss and Karrde families—a Wayfarer-class medium transport. It is a Freighter that not only has a massive cargo space, but a hanger bay module where Ben and I can store our StealthX fighters. Our parents purchased the ship so Zylie and Valla could continue working in the family trader business, but at the same time spend more time with their totally whipped husbands. Ha!

Zylie and Valla grew up on their father’s ship Wild Karrde, so this is no big deal to them. This is going to be a unique experience for Ben and me. Luckily, Ben and I have been roommates at the Temple for the last few years, so we know we can get along. Now we need to find out if we can live on a freighter (albeit a large freighter) with our wives for the next…I don’t know…forever. Till death do us part was what we all vowed. Hopefully we won’t all get cabin fever and make that vow come to fruition prematurely.

I'll write more in this journal later. I need to get something to eat.

Interesting start. So does this mean he'll be a whipped husband in no time?

Why not? He was a totally whipped boyfriend prior to getting married. In his last journal Zylie talked him into going clothes shopping with her and holding her purse while she tried outfits on. Of course he was caught by Ben.

He's got a lot on his plate. He got married and now is entering into a new living situation. I've lived with multiple roommates while in the Army, but I never lived with another couple…so I am not sure how that is going to work out for the guys. The sisters, of course, were raised together, so that isn't new to them.

The first few posts will be to familiarize the readers with the characters and their new living arrangements. I am going to try to write this so a new reader might understand the story without reading a half-million word backstory.

Now the boys are getting to check out their wedding gift thoroughly. After the wedding each took off with their respective brides on their honeymoons.

_____________________________________________

Entry 2

Our new ship came with two droids. I don’t like droids. My father never liked droids either. I don’t know why we have this particular aversion. I definitely know it is not genetic since my Uncle Luke is always around his astromech droid, R2-D2. My dad used to joke that if Luke stopped too abruptly Artoo Detoo would bump into his ass. I don’t know if it’s actually that bad, but I do see the two together a lot. Artoo is an extremely vocal and spunky droid that is just a little less annoying to me than my Aunt Leia’s protocol droid, See Threepio. Ben says the little astromech is so perceptive and sensitive to his father’s emotions that he sometimes wonders if the lack of memory wipes in the last four decades has made the little Artoo unit almost…sentient. That thought creeps me out. A sentient droid is not something I want to consider. It is like one of those horror holos where the droids become self-aware and rise up to kill all biological sentient life.

Unfortunately the ship is too large to run without either a pilot droid or a full six-man crew. I really don’t want to live with more people, so I guess I will tolerate a droid.

Ben and I went to the flight deck to check out our new pilotmech. As we entered the ship’s bridge, the droid rose from the pilot seat, made a slight bow and then said in a very deep, masculine voice. “Greetings Master Skywalker, Master Tantiss. I am I-Dee-Ten-Tee hybrid pilot/navigation/protocol droid at your service.”

I have seen pilot droids before, but this droid was an unfamiliar model. It had the standard bipedal form like a C3PO unit, but the face didn't mimic human features. The head instead looked a little like a metallic silver Clone Trooper helmet, except instead of eye slits there was a 360-degree sensor around the crown of its metal skull.

Ben greeted the droid like he would a living person. I just laughed in the droid’s face (or where its face would have been). “Who named you? Is that a factory designation?” I asked, fairly certain it wasn’t.

The droid cocked its head to the side mimicking the human gesture of surprise. “Why no Master Tantiss. I am a highly unique droid specifically designed for this ship and the needs of the crew. As for my name, I believe your father gave me my nomenclature designation.”

I smirked and turned away. “Figures.”

My dad and I are both Void Jumper qualified and we've worked extensively as Jedi Assets in jump trooper units. Experienced soldiers like to harass young recruits by telling them to go to the supply office and pick up some I-D-Ten-T requisition forms. Of course when they get to the supply room the supply sergeant would tell him he’s busy and ask the recruit to write down the form number for him. The soldier would write down ID10T and realize he was just pranked. ID10T…or IDIOT!

“Why don’t I call you Ten-Tee for short,” I said to the droid.

“That would be more than acceptable Master Tantiss.”

As we left the flight deck Ben gave me a curious look. I smirked at my redheaded cousin. “I’ll tell you later. Let’s check out the medical droid.”

We went down the corridor to the small medical bay. There was a 2-1B surgical droid. Like the pilot droid it was bipedal with masculine programing and an overly cheerful disposition. We didn’t get a chance to examine the medical facility extensively because our wives finally returned to the ship…and I got a surprise more unpleasant than learning I would have to live with two droids. Zylie must have stopped by her father’s ship docked nearby because she returned with her pet vornskr, Princess.

I never once considered that she would take her vicious pet from her father’s ship and bring it onto ours. As they entered the freighter the animal’s eyes locked onto mine. I could sense through the Force the vornskr’s intense dislike for me right before the beast broke out in trot, barreling down the corridor in my direction. I have no idea why that vornskr hates me. She has yet to take a bite out of me, but I know she is just looking for an excuse.

“Princess heel!” Zylie yelled out to her pet. The coarse-haired vornskr skidded to a halt about a meter from me while raising her head and exposing very large and sharp teeth. I moved to walk around the animal, but that prompted a deep rumbling growl from the vornskr.

I sighed deeply as I heard Ben chuckle from behind me. He bent down on a knee and called the animal over to him. The large beast gave me a warning look as it moved around me to Ben and allowed my cousin to scratch behind her ears.

“You are such a good girl!” Ben said in a singsong voice as the canine’s back paw started to judder up and down in a contented involuntary response to having her fur stroked. Eventually the animal rubbed her head against Ben’s chest before it delivered a wet slobbery lick to his face.

I shuddered. There was no way I was going to let a vornskr get that close to my face or any other parts of my body that were not easily replaceable by cybernetics.

“I don’t know why she likes you,” I said to Ben.

Ben gave me a toothy grin. “Because I’m not scared of her,” he said matter-of-factly.

I gave a dismissive snort as I watched my cousin fawning over the vornskr. “I’m not scared of Princess.” As if by cue, the animal turned and snarled at me. I instinctively jumped back about a meter eliciting laughter from the group. “Okay, maybe I am a little skittish around her.” I turned back to Zylie. “Are you seriously going to bring her onboard?”

Zylie gave me that pouty face she always pulls on me to make me give in to her demands…but not this time.

“Talon, I’ve had Princess half of my life…thirteen years.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want that animal on board.”

Zylie looked over to Valla. “Princess is our pet. She belongs to Valla as much as me. You’re not going to deprive both of us of our childhood pet, are you?”

Valla gave me an identical pleading look with pouting lips and sad hazel eyes. I heard Ben laugh softly behind me. “You’re beat Talon.” He walked over to his wife, putting an arm around her and pulling her close so he could kiss her on the cheek. He looked back to me and grinned. “We’ve never won an argument with these two, why do you think you’re going to start now?”

“Well, I’m going to start now,” I protested. “I’m a pittin person, not a canine person.”

Zylie came over to me laying her delicate hands across my chest and gazing up with a vivacious smile. “Why don’t we go to our cabin and discuss this privately.”

I gave a frustrated groan. I knew as soon as we were in our quarters she would exercise the full power of her feminine wiles on me. She grabbed the sleeve of my tunic and started pulling me toward our cabin.

“Don’t do it Talon,” Ben laughed at my plight. “Once you step through that door you’ll promise her anything. You’ll be cleaning up vornskr excrement for the foreseeable future.”

Ben’s wife Valla playfully slapped his shoulder. “Whose side are you on anyway?”

Ben turned to his wife and grinned. “Why yours, honey.” He gave her a wink. “Let’s lock up the ship and maybe we can have a long, private discussion in our cabin also.”

Thanks. I think Princess is just doing what she was trained to do when Zylie was a young teen…scare Talon. She teased Talon because she had a crush on him, but the Vornskr only knows she used to tell it to attack the boy. So Princess is not comfortable with Talon.

Whew! I'm so with Talon on this one. Nothing that can bite your arm off as soon as look at you should ever be in confined quarters with a person.

Yeah, I wouldn't like it. I had an uncle that had these huge dobermans that scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. He brought those dogs everywhere including into my parents' home. If I moved too quickly the dog would react. I am sure Princess will eventually warm up to Talon.

Thanks. I really hope Ben finds a special lady in the profics. Someone who isn't Sith or who molested him as a boy (reference to Crucible)

This next update it short, but I thought I would post it because I have trouble writing unless there is pressure on me to do so. As long as this is sitting in the wings I won't write anything else. That is why all of my stories get so long.

As expected, I crumbled under Zylie’s highly persuasive negotiation style. Oh well, I made her work for it. She spent hours persuading me. Ha!

We ended up installing an extra large kennel in the cargo room and an indoor animal waste system, which consisted of a large patch of synthetic grass over a drainage grid that led to a drip pan. Since nobody really wanted to change the drip pan I ended up getting a plumber to run a waste line from the bottom of the pan to the ship’s ‘fresher drainline. We had a valve installed that would trigger at set intervals flushing the liquid waste into the drainpipe. The only thing that had to be done by hand (or by a hand wrapped in a plastobag) was to manually remove the feces and throw the bag into the ship’s garbage compactor and then spray the grass with an anti-odor, bacteria eliminating enzyme. Zylie promised me that was one job I would never have to do.She probably could have convinced me to perform that particular nauseating duty if she wanted to, but I guess she didn’t want to press her luck.

With that out of the way, all that was left was the task of naming our ship. That was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

These are the names we looked at but rejected:

1. Deep Ship (my suggestion)2. Ship for Brains (also mine)3. Karrde’s Kids (Ben's suggestion)4. Fastidiots (Zylie explained that this was a play on the word fastidious. I must have looked confused because Ben informed me that fastidious was another word for pedantic. Seeing my blank face, Valla gave me the definition of pedantic. Ben then asked me if I slept through all my classes in Basic)5. Empty Space (Zylie's suggestion…and for some reason she was looking at me when she proposed that name)6. Sloshed Spacer (mine)7. Sunava Beach (also mine)8. The Spayed Vornskr (Definitely mine. I was told that wasn’t funny…but it is.)9. Just Flying Around (Valla's)10. Major Altitude (Ben's)11. Dames and Knights (Mine)12. Ships-N-Giggles (Zylie)13. Wedded Bliss (Ben got an enthusiastic kiss from his wife for this suggestion)14. Suck My Wake (This resulted in a slap to my head from my wife)15. Star Wake (Ben)16. Wide Load (Mine)17. Skyrunner (Ben)18. Skywalker (Of course, Ben)19. Red Knight (Ben)20. Hot Knights (Mine. I really liked this one)21. Sexy Knights (I liked this one better)22. Hot-N-Sexy Knights (This was the best of my suggestions)23. Neutered Knights (Zylie’s suggestion after, according to her, I made one too many cretinous suggestions…and by cretinous I assume she meant AWESOME!)

Finally, our wives told us to forget about having a ship designation with any reference to Jedi Knights or the Skywalker name. For professional reasons, the ship was registered under the Karrde Corporation and it wouldn’t be a good business practice to let people know Jedi Knights were aboard. Although their trade profession was entirely legal, businessmen and women were wary about dealing with Force-users, especially while making a business deal.

I suggested the ship be named after the ladies aboard. So we looked at VallaZylie or the ZylieValla. Not liking the sound of those proposals, the ladies settled on Vazy—from the first two letters of Valla and Zylie. It was a short name, but I liked it.

“So it’s settled,” I said. “We’ll call the ship Vazy after the lovely women on board.” I went to get up from the dining table when I heard a low rumbling growl from under the kitchen tabletop followed by the clicking of sharp claws on the durasteel deck. Zylie’s vornskr crawled out from where she was hiding and laid her chin on the table like she was going to beg for food scraps.

“Oh, she’s upset that you forgot one female,” Zylie said as she scratched behind the animal’s ears.

“The Vazy Princess,” Valla shouted out. “That sounds so much better.”

Both ladies enthusiastically agreed. I wasn’t thrilled about having the word Princess in the name of my ship…especially since it is the name of my evil nemesis. Ben liked it though, so I agreed in order to keep the peace.